These spectacular 'blue marble' images are the most detailed views of Earth to date.

Using a collection of satellite images, scientists painstakingly stitched together months of observations to create these montages which show the surface of the continents and oceans in stunning detail.

Much of the imagery came from a space camera onboard the Nasa satellite Terra, which is orbiting 435miles above the Earth's surface.

A spokesman from the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre, which released the pictures, said: 'These are spectacular "blue marble" images, which show the beauty of our small planet.'...

"For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I [am] the LORD; and [there is] none else." Isaiah 45:18 (AV)